The Grey Vulture (1926)

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This delightful Maynard vehicle may be a little short in length, but that's all to the good. The pace is super-fast, even with time out for some amusing comedy in which the fall guy is not played by some stooge but – delightfully – by our hero himself. This is a Maynard entry that will appeal not only to western fans, but to all who enjoy fast-paced action, inventive comedy, and a winning coach-load of pretty girls. Bob Hope loved the scene in which our hero artfully plays twiddle-the-mustache with the sheriff, but I thought this routine went on just a shade too long. However, the rest of the movie with its super-fast tracking shots along perilous mountain trails is a western connoisseur's delight.Compared with the Grapevine release, the Alpha DVD appears to have a few slight cuts, the principal one being a successful attempt to disguise the substitution of Kermit Maynard for our hero when he takes a flying leap into Tarzan's saddle.

Contrary to the description in some film reference books, there is not a serious moment throughout the five reels of The Grey Vulture. Ken Maynard plays a cowboy daydreaming of the age of chivalry and being the knight, "Sir Arthur of the Grey Vulture," who rescues the "Lady Beatrice" when she is abducted by villainous varlets. His daydreaming gets him fired from the ranch and his first attempt to come to the aid of a lady in distress ends up with the sheriff in hot pursuit. Ken's second attempt turns out much better, when he stops a runaway stagecoach and rescues a bevy of gorgeous girls on their way with Hazel Deane to her father's ranch. All is not well at that ranch, where the foreman is scheming with the lawyer to run off the cattle but Hazel overhears them and they kidnap her. Ken, true to his fantasy, dashes to the rescue and after a breakneck chase vanquishes the foreman and his men. When Ken is finally in one place long enough for the sheriff to catch him up to him, that officer realises that he has nothing criminal with which to charge him.In this early, low budget Western Ken Maynard was having lots of fun as the daydreaming hero, aided by Fred Burns as the sheriff and Sailor Sharkey as the ranch foreman. He and Tarzan were on fine form in the chase scenes and the girls were very fetching in their bathing suits. They were played by The Hollywood Beauty Sextette, who were worked into all of Maynard's Davis features as eye candy. Australian beauty, Hazel Deane, also appeared in Westerns with Neal Hart and Bob Custer during a short-lived career.

A simple plot is standard for most westerns of the time period, but usually great action scenes and at least one good actor could make them enjoyable. The plot for The Grey Vulture really is simple. A young cowboy, Bart Miller -- played by Maynard, constantly reads a book about a knight from 300 years earlier named The Grey Vulture. In his attempts to emulate the hero of the book he gets himself into trouble. The opening sequence shows Bart Miller (Maynard) dressed in armor in the part of the mythical knight saving a young lady (Hazel Deane) and her father (Whitehorse) from a group of evil men in a daring chase on horseback. The scene is played again at the end of the movie when Bart saves the girl, Betty Taylor, and her father, Bill Taylor, from the bad guys. The climax of course is another chase on horseback. An old joke appears in this old movie when Bart Miller tries to stop a fight between an old man and his wife.Maynard: "Have you no respect for a lady?"Old Man: "I respect a lady-- but that's my wife!"A point of interest is that this movie is not set in the old west, but in present day 1926. There are horses and a stagecoach. Plenty of cowboys are in this one. There are no automobiles, telephones, or radios like in many of the B westerns of the 30's and 40's, especially Roy Rogers' movies. What gives it away is the way the girls are portrayed. Betty Taylor and a group of friends from school are visiting her father's ranch. They are all dressed in 1920's dresses with short hair. The girls dance with the cowboys before they go for a swim. There are closeups of the girls' exposed legs as they dance in their 1920's short bathing suits. When they all go for a swim in the "pool", which turns out to be a natural pond, the cowboys are standing around watching them frolic in the water. This is not a typical element of a western film, but the men who saw this movie in 1926 surely were entertained. Ken Maynard became one of the biggest western stars of the 20's and 30's, and The Grey Vulture is on par with the Tom Mix movies of the same period. Maynard's presence is fine, although he does not dominate all of the scenes.In a silent movie there really are no lines to be spoken, just a few to be read. Maynard provides plenty of action with some fighting and his horse riding scenes are truly excellent. His skills as a horseman were part of his success, and they were used well in many scenes of The Grey Vulture.